Last week Rod Humble CEO of Linden Lab left Linden Lab after 3 years at the lab. Jo Yardley was the first to report about Rod’s departure through Facebook private message. Rod told family, friends and co-workers on his personal Facebook page. Rod Humble mentions that he wants to start up his own company that will make art, entertainment and cool stuff. More details will be announced in a few weeks.

This is very surprising news and shocking to hear about his departure. There was no big announcements about Rod leaving anywhere during the past week. It’s not known at this stage who will take over as CEO of Linden Lab but I’m sure we will know more in the coming weeks. So stay tuned.

I do think we need a CEO who has a solid understanding of Second Life and someone who is already from Second Life to take over the ship. But whatever happens it’s going to be interesting to see where Second Life/Linden Lab goes next during 2014+.

The good things that Rod did for Second Life between (2011-2013)

Rod Humble (Rodvik Linden) joined back in January 2011 at Linden Lab and since then Second Life has been improved alot since then. See the list below for all the big changes and improvements rolled out over the years….

2011

Teen Grid merged with Second Life main grid

The Second Life Community Platform launched

Basic/Advanced modes in Viewer 2

The Social Web Profiles introduced

Launch of Mesh

2012

Pathfinding alpha

Improved Avatar and Object Streaming speeds

2013

CHUI Beta Viewer launched

Materials Project Viewer launched

Project Shining launched

SLShare

Rod Humble gaming timeline so far…

Worked on gaming since 1990

Worked on The Sims 2 and The Sims 3

Worked on Sony’s EverQuest

Was the Executive vice president & head of The Sims group at ESA (2008 to 2010)

Became CEO of Linden Lab from January 2011 to January 2014

New company startup in 2014 planned

I wish Rod all the best for the future and I would like to personally say thanks so much for all the big improvements made to Second Life over the past 3 years. We will miss you!

Thanks Drax and I’ll look forward to episode 4 about Rod hopefully. This is big news and there are so many questions need answering. The next CEO of Linden Lab will be the 4th one and who knows who that will be ?.

I think many may not be aware that rod might not have been a supporter of linden lab investing in high fidelity, that a high fidelity type change was a roadmap rod wanted second life to take as his own dream and vision of second life but was not granted so phil and crew bypassed rod using a start up with funding from trusted board members so this handicapped any future direct changes to second life with rod as visionary, he was tired of being a king without a crown.
I suspect the next person to replace rod will be a woman who is already in the lab who will be the one who gets it all right this time.

Good riddance to ‘take the money and Ron’. As for the so called ‘improvements’ you list, I shall only say ‘you gotta be joking???!!!’ LL is still a customer relations disaster; many had high hopes he would connect with his customers and encourage this attitude at LL. Instead, he learned at LL the company is king and the customer only worthy of contempt.